Showing results by narrator "joel richards" in All Categories

The Uses of Delusion is about aspects of human nature that are not altogether rational but, nonetheless, help us achieve our social and personal goals. Psychologist Stuart Vyse presents a lively, accessible exploration of the psychological concepts behind "useful delusions," fleshing out how delusional thinking may play a role in love and relationships, illness and loss, and personality and behavior. Along the way Vyse draws on the work of William James, Daniel Kahneman, and Joan Didion—who wrote about her compelling belief that her deceased husband would soon return to her.

Curiosity stirs the soul of every human. Who has not wondered about how the human body works? Can we drown from drinking too much water? What is a black hole? Can black holes allow us to time travel? Is spontaneous human combustion possible? Do identical twins have the same fingerprints? How do scientists age dinosaur bones? How does gravity make things fall? Why do sunflowers always face the sun? What about a man flying with wings? How big would those wings have to be? How tall can a human grow? Why are tennis balls fuzzy? What happens to the white when snow melts?

In the heart of South America lies the Pantanal, the largest freshwater wetland system in the world. An area the size of France, most of the wetlands lie in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil. Often overshadowed by its more glamorous cousin The Amazon, the Pantanal actually has the greatest concentration of wildlife in the Americas. And environmentalists say it is in just as much ecological danger as any of the world’s rainforests.

A centre for indigenous Peruvians and Bolivians and the second largest lake in South America, Lake Titicaca is probably best known for its spiritual significance to the Incas. It is one of the highest navigable lakes in the world standing almost four thousand metres above sea level and the mysteries in its depths still draw thousands each year to the sacred site.

Robert Snyder tells the story of COVID-19 in the words of ordinary New Yorkers, illuminating the fear and uncertainty of life in the early weeks and months, as well as the solidarity that sustained the city. New Yorkers were "alone together," separated by the protective measures of social distancing and the fundamental inequalities of life and work in New York City.

Antibiotics have failed. All that's left are the Strains - bacteria so strong, they have brought the world to its knees. But humanity has fought on, carving out pockets of civilization, creating the super high-tech Clean Nation cities. From the cities, GenSOF has been born. An elite military branch of the government that enlists men and women with specific genetic anomalies that allow them to be hosts to bacteria that even the Strains cannot defeat. GenSOF protects the Clean Nation cities from the ever-encroaching Strains. But now, Control has other plans for GenSOF....

Confidence is sexy. Confidence is powerful. Call it what you want - chutzpah, charisma, or the cool factor. But whatever you call it, Randy Cohen, the CEO (chief energizing officer) of TicketCity, says it’s all about swagger - or confidence with an attitude! Cohen has been courtside, ringside, and inside at some of the greatest events on the planet - Olympics, Super Bowls, and sold-out mega-concerts. Secrets of Swagger shares his expertise on how 10 celebrities have reached amazing success by channeling their inner power and then strutting their stuff all the way to the bank.

Faith to Foster is a candid look into the life of ordinary foster parents T.J. and Jenn Menn. It is a journey chronicling their decision-making process, how the children arrived, the birth parents struggle to rehabilitate, help from friends and family, emotional goodbyes, and how faith in Jesus empowered them through it all. TJ and Jenn share their experiences and feelings in a way that encourages any listener to serve their neighbors, not just foster parents. Faith to Foster reminds Christians how God can use them to make a difference in their community.

While their family’s wagon train stops for a rest, Jacob Milam goes hunting with his younger brother, Tom. They are hoping for a rabbit, a deer, or even a buffalo, but they haven’t managed to catch anything bigger than a rattlesnake when they see the Indian raiding party galloping over the plains. Jacob races back to camp, desperate to warn his parents, but it is already too late. Betrayed by their Indian guide, the settlers have been slaughtered. Jacob and Tom are the only survivors.

Galileo Unbound traces the journey that brought us from Galileo's law of free fall to today's geneticists measuring evolutionary drift, entangled quantum particles moving among many worlds, and our lives as trajectories traversing a health space with thousands of dimensions. Remarkably, common themes persist that predict the evolution of species as readily as the orbits of planets or the collapse of stars into black holes.

Herb Moss is a nice young man. He's a Vegan: a member of a genetically engineered species, part human and part plant, living on the planet New World. It's a good life, really: Herb's engaged to be married to his childhood sweetheart Lily; has a job with his father's firm; and can look forward to a solid if unexciting future. And as everyone keeps telling him, it's time to put down roots. If he happens to be bored every time he thinks about it - well, that's a normal part of growing up, isn't it?

New York City, after decades of martial law, suffers a perpetual gray cloud cover and rainfall, a remnant effect the nuclear strikes upon the world's weather. Troops and armored personnel carriers patrol the streets. A curfew remains in effect. All of this is just business as usual for Chief Inspector Isaac January of the US Army's Criminal Investigation Division of the New York Garrison. That is until he is called to a grisly murder scene that appears to be an exact copy of a scene that January saw 10 years before.

Ten years after the end of the American involvement in the Vietnam War, a career Foreign Service officer, Thomas J. Corcoran, set down in writing his thoughts on the history of US State Department policy during America's involvement with South Vietnam. Like many Americans of his generation, he was perplexed by the failure of America to achieve its goals in South Vietnam. As an ambassador and with over thirty years of diplomatic experience he brought to his analysis a long and rich personal experience with events in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

River Kassandros has spent more than 2,000 years as a humble servant, bound to immortal Spartan warrior Ajax for eternity as his captain's weapon of choice. The two complete each other, forming a powerful fighting team against demonic foes. But at the height of an epic battle, River is flung into the depths of the Savannah River by their darkest enemy.

When his father leaves town, 12-year-old Rodney Culver's mother takes up with Otis Dell, a fry cook at the local diner - and a well-known petty thief. While Rodney resists the man's influence at first, Otis soon draws the boy into his small-time criminal world. After a simple heist goes violently wrong, Rodney becomes an unwitting fugitive, swept away from his mother to the primitive mountain sanctuary of the mysterious Lester Fanning. 

Two creatures found in the woods are taken in by a troubled couple. McSweeney's is a literary journal based in San Francisco.

A behind-the-scenes look at how the military uses video game technology to train soldiers, treat veterans, and entice new recruits How does the U.S. military train its soldiers for new forms of armed conflict, all within the constraints of diminished defense budgets? Increasingly, the answer is...

Lieutenant Scott Dillon isn't an overly complicated man - he has a rebel military operation to command and alien enemies to battle. But he also must cohabitate with humans in the middle of his unit's temporary home in remote Wyoming- humans who suddenly interest him on a much more personal level than ever before. Well, one human has enticed him, to be more precise: a female FBI linguist who not only speaks his native language, but managed to save his life in one of the worst fire fights he ever experienced - despite also being blind. That she's beautiful and alluringly sensual only arouses his interest even more.

Edgar Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original! Bestselling sensation Lisa Turner conjures a riveting Southern gothic mystery set in Memphis, with echoes of Midnight in The Garden of Good and Evil and Lisa Gardener, in which detective Billy Able is thrown into a vortex of bizarre murders...

In The Safety of the Kingdom, J. Michael Martinez takes up the question of how the United States government has responded to terrorist attacks and, in the absence of an attack, the fear of foreign and subversive elements that may harm the nation. In some cases the government “overreaction” led to a series of abuses that amplified the severity of the original threat.